A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | M A R C H 2 0 2 3 5 PLASTIC RECYCLING MAKES PROGRESS Using a unique catalytic approach, scientists at the DOE’s ArgonneNational Laboratory, Lemont, Ill., and Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., report converting post-consumer high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic into a fully recyclable, potentially biodegradable material with the same mechanical and thermal properties as the initial single-use plastic. Many HDPE products are produced from fossil fuels, and most post-consumer HDPE is either incinerated, placed in landfills, or lost in the environment. When it is recycled with today’s methods, the quality of the material degrades. The new approach could reduce the carbon emissions and pollution RESEARCH TRACKS / FEEDBACK We welcome all comments and suggestions. Send letters to joanne.miller@asminternational.org. SPLENDID CARTRIDGE BRASS The article on metallography of cartridge brass in the November/ December 2022 AM&P is splendid. I plan to share it with my students when we do our metallography lab on the same material. Peggy Jones, FASM Saginaw Valley State University METAL POWDER PROGRESS I am amazed by the scope of new developments covered in AM&P year after year. I was involved in the metal powder industry for many years and even wrote a number of pieces for the magazine prior to the crash of 2008. I never thought I would live to see MIM (metal injection molding) featured on your front cover (AM&P, October 2022, pictured below). Joseph Capus Consulting Editor Metal Powder Report Proposed chemical recycling of waste polyolefins and current work on transformation of waste polyethylene into chemically recyclable materials. Courtesy of J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2022. associated with HDPE by using waste plastic as an untapped feedstock and transforming it into a new material that can be recycled repeatedly with- out loss of quality. Current HDPE recycling approaches yield materials with inferior properties. The team’s alternative approach uses a series of catalysts to cleave the polymer chains into shorter pieces that contain reactive groups at the ends. The smaller pieces can then be put back together to form new products of equal value. The end groups have the additional benefit of making the new plastic easier to decompose, both in the lab and in nature. Research was funded by the DOE’s Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP) led by Ames National Laboratory. anl.gov. FEEDBACK
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